1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for developing an air bag for a vehicle into a vehicle compartment to hold an occupant of a vehicle, by a high pressure gas generated by an inflator, when an acceleration greater than a predetermined value is detected.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are air bag devices for vehicles such as known from Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. 105022/93 and 110252/92, which are capable of holding an occupant when the vehicle comes into any of a frontal collision and a side collision.
In the air bag device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 105022/93, an air bag including an inflator and adapted to be operated upon the frontal collision of the vehicle is mounted in an instrument panel, and an air bag adapted to be operated upon the side collision is mounted in a side door. The side-collision air bag is connected to the inflator through a duct.
In the air bag device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 110252/92, a single air bag is developed into a U-shaped or L-shaped (as viewed in a plane) inflated state, so that the front and side of an occupant can be held by the single air bag.
In general, the distance between the occupant and the side door is smaller than the distance between the occupant and the instrument panel and for this reason, it is necessary to develop the side-collision air bag earlier than the frontal-collision air bag, when the vehicle gets a shock from an oblique direction. In the above known air bag devices, however, the timings for developing the side-collision air bag and the frontal-collision air bag are not taken into consideration and for this reason, there is a possibility that the occupant cannot be reliably held upon the side collision or oblique collision of the vehicle.